Loglogo: The village of young widows in Marsabit

By the age of 12, Dahato Esimruso was already a wife, having been forcibly married off to a man older than her father.

She has never been to school and as a child, her chores included herding goats, fetching firewood and water at her family’s home in Kamboe, Marsabit County, before her father decided that she was “ripe” for marriage.

“At first, I did not understand what was happening when I found myself in the manyatta of a man the age of my grandfather. He had two other wives in the boma and when he attempted to touch me inappropriately, I ran back to my mother crying,” she recalls.

Her mother was not sympathetic with her and she ordered her back to her husband, and eventually she accepted her fate. She was a married woman and a year later gave birth to a daughter. Before the baby could celebrate her first birthday, her husband died aged about 80, making her a widow before she was barely 15 years old.

Widowed young

Ms Esimruso, now a mother of seven, is among dozens of women widowed young owing to harmful cultural beliefs and practices and rampant insecurity in parts of Marsabit County.

Some newly married men in this pastoralist Rendile community have died at the hands of cattle rustlers, leaving their wives struggling to bring up young families.

A survey carried out by the Nation.africa on the outskirts of Loglogo town in Laisamis Constituency established that four out of 10 homesteads had a widow as the breadwinner.

“My husband was shot with four others as they pursued cattle rustlers who had staged a daring raid and stolen over 100 cattle in the Gudas grazing area,” says Miliwan Learapo at her manyatta, a short distance from the Isiolo-Moyale highway.

“I was only 12 years old and the first wife when he died and since then, it has been a struggle bringing up the children.”

Project to support widows

The rising number of widows prompted the local church to initiate a project to support those who have lost their husbands due to old age or insecurity.

“When we started this project, we targeted 50 widows from this locality whom we could empower economically as a way of dissuading them from engaging in immorality. We could solicit support from well-wishers and buy them either goats or a camel,” explains Pastor Sammy Moga of the African Inland Church.

Pastor Moga explained that the project kicked off in 2005, with 40 widows receiving five goats and an equal number getting a female camel, all from the neighbourhood of Loglogo.

The pastor said they were targeting young women who had lost their breadwinners through old age or in clashes over pasture for their livestock.

Ms Esimruso and Ms Learapo are among the beneficiaries.

Hostility from co-wives

While Ms Learapo was the first wife and was easily accepted by her in-laws, Ms Esimruso faced hostility from her two co-wives and their sons, who eventually chased her out of the homestead and took control of the livestock she had inherited from her husband.

Though this project stopped due to lack of donor support, Pastor Moga said it does not mean the problem no longer exists.

“Insecurity is still with us and that is the reason we still have a dusk-to-dawn curfew in Marsabit County,” he says. “So young men who have taken their cattle to some known battlegrounds in search of pasture and water are at risk of being killed by rival pastoralist communities.”

Cattle rustling

The latest cattle rustling attack occurred on Sunday when a man was killed and livestock stolen by bandits, despite the security operation and a night curfew.

The bandits shot Asugo Simon Skaldere in the neck before making away with an unknown number of animals.

Marsabit County Commissioner Paul Rotich said persistent banditry is undercutting the security operation that started in April.

“Cattle rustling continues to be our security concern as it isn’t only a crime but a deeply entrenched retrogressive tradition among pastoralist communities. We are doing everything possible to address the challenge in Marsabit,” Mr Rotich said.

Belief in bearing boys

Pastor Moga, however, said some of the other reasons contributing to the high number of widows is the Rendile community’s belief that a homestead or a family is never complete until a son is born.

“The boy is highly regarded in our community. So a man may have two wives but once they fail to give him a son, regardless of his age, he will continue marrying additional wives, who happen to be young girls, until one of them gets a son,” explains Pastor Moga.

The importance of the boy to the community becomes noticeable during a twice-a-year revered ceremony called ‘sorio’ that is conducted by elders aimed at blessing women who have sons in their family.

This ceremony resembles the biblical Passover where a ram is slaughtered and the blood used in blessing the homestead.

Another contributing factor is wealth, which is measured by the size of the herd, goats, sheep, cattle or camels.

More wives and children

With a majority in the community embracing education for their children, there are men who want more wives and children to take care of their wealth, meaning their livestock. Hence they will continue to marry the girls.

Speaking in Nyeri during a sensitisation forum to end the triple threats facing adolescents (HIV infection, pregnancies and sexual and gender-based violence), Health Cabinet Secretary Mutahi Kagwe said it was no longer a matter to be taken lightly and communities should embrace traditional methods of punishing the perpetrators.

“Traditionally, when a man raped a child, they were placed in a box akin to a hive and rolled down from a cliff. That way, no man will look at a child with any form of desire. We cannot continue like this, it is not possible,” he said.

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